Geography: The `S` shaped ocean

Published December 26, 2009

The Atlantic Ocean is the world's second largest ocean and covers almost one-fifth of Earth's surface with a total area of nearly 106.4 million square kilometres.

Some believe that the name of this ocean is derived from Atlas, the god in Greek mythology and thus the name means Sea of Atlas. The Atlantic Ocean touches Africa and Eurasia (land consisting of Europe and Asia) to the east and the North and South America to the west. The ocean takes the shape of the letter “S” when looked closely on the world map.

It is linked with the Arctic Ocean through the Norwegian Sea, Barents Sea, Greenland Sea and the Denmark Strait. The Atlantic Ocean is divided by the Equator into South Atlantic Ocean and North Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean covers nearly 22 per cent of the Earth's surface and its average depth is about 10,950 feet. The deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean is the Puerto Rico Trench, which is 28,230 feet deep. The other two trenches in the Atlantic are the South Sandwich Trench which is 27,650 ft deep, and the Romanche Trench, situated near the Equator, is 24,460 ft deep.

Among the five oceans of the world, Atlantic is the second youngest ocean and it appeared nearly 130 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. This was the time when the single continent of the world, also called Pangaea, started to break, it was only then that the Atlantic Ocean started to take shape. The Atlantic Ocean has also been broadly travelled around since the time when its shores were populated by early settlers. Christopher Columbus, Portuguese travellers and the Vikings were the early and famous explorers of the Atlantic. After Columbus explored this ocean, it became a route for transatlantic trade between Europe, and North and South America, and played a significant role in the expansion of the Western civilisation.

There is a submarine mountain range in the Atlantic Ocean called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is a boundary of tectonic plates situated on the ocean floor of the Atlantic. This ridge was first discovered and studied in 1850 by Matthew Fontaine Maury. In the North Atlantic, this ridge separates the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate, and in the South Atlantic it separates the South American Plate from the African Plate. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is nearly 10,000km long and links a chain of oceanic ridges that surround the entire planet. Later research showed that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was part of a 40,000 kilometre long continuous chain of mid-ocean ridges present on the ocean floor.

Natural resources of the Atlantic include sand and gravel aggregates, oil and gas fields and numerous precious stones. Climatic conditions of the Atlantic include tropical cyclones which normally develop near Cape Verde, coast of Africa, and move towards the Caribbean Sea in the west. These hurricanes occur from May to December but their frequency is higher during August to November.

The main concentration of islands in the Atlantic Ocean is in the Caribbean. These islands include the British Isles, Falkland Islands, Canary Islands and Newfoundland. Iceland, the Azores, the islands of Cape Verde, Ascension, the South Sandwich Islands, the West Indies and Bermuda are exposed tops of submarine ridges. The islands of Madeira in the Atlantic, in the region of Portugal, are high volcanic islands. There are over 200 ports located along the Atlantic which are present in Africa, Caribbean, Europe, North and South America.

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